Publication information

Source:
St. Louis Republic
Source type: newspaper
Document type: editorial
Document title: “To Protect the President”
Author(s): anonymous
City of publication: St. Louis, Missouri
Date of publication: 24 March 1902
Volume number: 94
Issue number: 267
Pagination: 4

 
Citation
“To Protect the President.” St. Louis Republic 24 Mar. 1902 v94n267: p. 4.
 
Transcription
full text
 
Keywords
McKinley assassination (government response); presidents (protection); anarchism (government response); anarchism (dealing with).
 
Named persons
Leon Czolgosz; William McKinley.
 
Document


To Protect the President

     There should be a very general satisfaction that the United States Senate has been able to pass without amendment the bill providing for the protection of the President, this action following an exceptionally full and free discussion of the measure.
     The assassination of the late President McKinley by the anarchist Czolgosz was the originating cause of the bill now just passed. The Czolgosz crime, instigated by the mouthings of anarchists who have unhappily been permitted to establish themselves in this country, revealed the truth that Americans need to throw additional safeguards around the life of the American who stands as the foremost representative of government, law and order.
     There was a reluctance on the part of the American people to believe that the life of the President was now continually imperiled through the fact of the murder cult of anarchy having rooted itself in American soil. But the teaching of Czolgosz’s deed was too plain to be misunderstood. The imported anarchist is a living figure in American life. He makes no discrimination between this free and kindly Government and the oppressive systems of Europe. He is moved to assassinate an American President exactly as if this chosen servant of the people stood for the tyranny of monarchical institutions.
     The bill for the protection of the President of the United States should be promptly enacted into law. The precautions for which it provides are now necessary, deplore the fact as we may. And, following the enactment of this law, and an increased stringency in our immigration laws, there should also be enacted a law especially aimed at anarchists and effectively framed to prevent anarchy from flourishing under a Government of the people by the people for the people.